Jim Cornette Reviews A&E's ECW Biography 

Jim criticizing Paul for not going through tables is particularly timely this week. lol

The most shocking recent development from ECW, is the fact that Sandman is still alive. He made Ric Flair and Rick James look like Rick Moranis.

I think it's funny how they conveniently skipped over the mass transit incident as well

Nice of Paul to make sure he got paid weekly by ECW, but not the wrestlers...

The good parts of ECW were some of the best things in 90’s wrestling. The bad parts gave us the shit we have today. But you can’t take Paul E’s genius away. He got the most out of guys who could barely perform a hip toss

"Like cocaine or New Jack..." 😂

I did prefer ECW’s version of three way matches. Pin fall elimination

“A lot of talent were using hip hop without royalties being paid.” Well, in Heyman’s defense hip hop at the time was using a lot of samples without paying for them.

Why did my brain initially read AEW's ECW biography. 😂

Dr. Frankenheyman resurrecting James E Cobain... this is a new level of cursed artwork for the channel 🤣

I think RVD did a good job describing the difference in hardcore wrestling in ECW versus when he got to WWE. He didn't know how to take a chair shot because no one taught him. He also didn't realize how easy the chair spots in WWE would be because ECW never rigged their chairs. They would grab the regular ones from the audience.

16:26 “You know what you didn’t see? Paul E. going though a table”😂

I wonder how many people are still owed money from Paul Heyman?

How ironic is the Paul Heyman not taking bumps and not going through tables comments after Last Friday? 😂

16:30 Paul finally went through a table on Smackdown, June 28 2024.

worst part of ecw thats continued to this day is the obnoxious live audience that wont shut up with the chanting.

Jim Cornette illustrated as Kurt Cobain Frankenstein is the funniest thing I've ever seen

Heres the thing with ECW. Its very 90s and like a lot of things that are very 90s, it has aged as such. At the time, as a lifelong fan who was a teenager, it really spoke to me.

The show was more a tribute to Paul than an ECW biography, most if not all of the girls were not even mentioned when they were a huge part of the show

Re: Corny’s comment on ECW audiences: they did one show at a Twin Cities suburban high school. Big crowd. Because of crowd behavior, ECW was told the next day to never come back. All other schools in the area told them not to call.

Anyone else stick to the back teeth of documentaries and media coverage of the same old stuff? ECW, Fall of WCW, Montreal Screwjob. There’s only so many times you can hear the same stories.

I was at a show in ‘99 in Chicago at the Odeium where The Dudley Boyz nearly caused a riot. They literally went into the crowd when the ref got hit with a folding chair thrown into the ring.

Really hope they cover RVD’s episode

I was living in Philly at the time of the rise of ECW and one thing that Jim doesn't talk about is that ECW was a reflection of the city. The Phillies were a collection of half-crazy, drug-fueled players that had the entire region becoming fans again. The Flyers were getting their Broad Street Bullies swagger back with The Legion of Doom line and hard-hitting style. Philly is the neglected big city sitting between the media powerhouse NYC and everything political DC. Rocky really did reflect the city. So Philly developed into this place with the short kid complex in that we won't back down. And ECW was another reflection of the city. The loud, brash, we'll settle this in an alley attitude. It was never meant to be corporate or sanitized. It was unfiltered and unleashed Philly attitude with blood and barbed wire.

ECW will always be my number 1. It came when I was a teenager and sick of the cartoon nonsense of wcw and wwf. I got my drivers license in 97 and the ecw area was one of the first places i went. Just the most fun and amazing times. It wasn't just extreme stuff. There was a deep appreciation for real characters and technical matches. Sadly, the roster had been gutted by the time they got on tnn. I always thought if there was one song or two wwe would license, it should be the NIN sample and Thunderkiss 65. That can help bring that ECW feel

Brian really hits the nail on the head: fans weren't angry in general, but angry at how wrestling was presented. I fell out of wrestling 1993 because it was so bad. I slowly started watching again in 1994/95 but it still was mostly lackluster. But then I saw ECW (2am Saturday on Prime Ticket) it was like a breath of fresh, or is it fetid?, air. It was something totally new and exciting. It was definitely the perfect antidote to the crap we were being fed the previous few years. Now, in hindsight, was it all worth it? Up to personal opinion but I think it was. Blaming ECW for the rise of some shitty wrestling is like blaming Black Sabbath for some shitty metal bands that existed 20 years after their fact. I love Cornette but not only do I not always agree with him, I think a lot of his views are sour grapes. And think his hatred of ECW is based on his dislike of Heyman. Yeah, he gives him credit and praise but still in 1991 Jim starts up SMW. A few years later, a guy who's pretty much an imitation of him, character-wise (Paul E.) starts up ECW. One has a millionaire backing, one doesn't. One takes off and, for better or worse, changes wrestling (to add insult to injury, doing a style Cornette hates), the other struggles and dies after a few years. So it's hard not to think this colors JCs view of ECW, instead of giving the "devil his due". (For the record, I like SMW too, so I'm not knocking it, just stating facts.)

Paul Heyman and ECW in general were in desperate need of a more boring and down to earth figure to help the actual running of the thing. When left to his own devices Heyman just couldn't rein anything in, ultimately they were always gonna crash and burn but hey the guy ran a promotion that people still remember to this day which is more than you could say for most in wrestling.

James E Cobain

"New Jack slices him from asshole to appetite" Jim Cornette lol 😆

For me ECW would come on the Spanish channel at 11pm Saturday Nights. Never missed a show from late 96 till they went out of business.

ECW was cool because it was actually THE OUTLAW SHOW. It would come on one of the local broadcast television channels at like 3am and it was pirate TV. It felt like something you weren't supposed to be seeing. And it's a good chance it won't be on the same channel at the same time next week.

There were were words not mentioned like “cocaine” & “New Jack” 😂😂😂

They should have explained to the viewer watching this, that Paul never paid talent, and was a scumbag.

RVD was probably the best to ever come out of ecw

Brian was an enabler going to multiple ECW shows.

I still remember seeing old interviews from the 2000's of ECW garbage wrestlers criticizing guys like Lance Storm for *not* taking unprotected chair headshots.😅😬

When Shane "the Franchise" Douglas won the NWA title and disrespected it was a top ECW moment imo.

Jim basically saying Smoky Mountain was timeless but it didn't pass the test of time. 😅😅😅

"I didn't like the whole endginess of the thing. You know, Bill Alfonso bleeding buckets over Beulah or what ever that match was" - Jim Cornette

The amount of drugs 💊. In tht ecw lockerroom. Back then must have been ludicrous. 👋🤣

Tommy Dreamer was set to WWF debut by crashing the Hardcore Championship match at X-SEVEN; reigniting the Raven rivalry. Tommy Dreamer; so hell bent loyal to ECW declined only to find out Paul Heyman sold COMPLETELY out to WWF. Paul Heyman taking King's spot on commentary. Hence Dreamer's assassination attempt on Paul E. at X-Seven

Jim dressed as Kurt Cobain! 🙌

I've never heard a wrestler say "sabu was my favorite wrestler"

Getting to do the meet and greets during Mania Weekend this year, since it was in Philly, it was basically an ECW reunion and it felt like a high school reunion for myself. I got to talk with Jerry Lynn, Shane Douglas, Francine, and even Tajiri was there! I wish Joey Styles was there haha They're all super cool people and ECW is still alive and well with the fans, especially the locals.

Ecw gave birth to ROH, TNA, AEW and many other smash face grab a table and take a chair shot wrestling we have today.

Why cant they make bios on Tito Santana, Greg Valentine, Rick Martel etc instead of the same things over and over. How many times can you hear the same thing?

Paul's ears must have been ringing now he went through a table lol

Now Paul is the one going through furniture

I heard RVD talking recently, either on his own podcast or on an old YouShoot, about him not willing to put over, I think Road Dogg (Roadie at the time) because he was a jobber in WWF and he didn't like how it would look for him to lose to the bigger company's job guy.

I went to an ECW show and got blood, sweat, & beer on me. Thought it was cool at the time but now I’m grossed out by it.

Can't wait to hear JC talk about Paul going thru a table...

Unpopular opinion but I think Vince McMahon was right when he said “ I trained the audience to chant ECW.” The best part about ECW (besides some of the talent.) was the DVD and the one night stand PPVS

Jim Cornette talking about Paul Heyman is always entertaining

Heyman with Khan's budget would've been magic.

The Paul Heyman puff piece featuring ECW

ECW was amazing for the first time you see it because nothing was done like that before for weekly TV in the US. But then you get desensitized. You need more tables, more blood, more fire, more chair shots (now to the head) to get the same reaction Terry Funk got piledriving Flair on a table in 1989 compared to 1999 in ECW.

They forgot all about Mass Transit almost bleeding to death in the middle of the ring. That may have been the most insane thing.

I'd really like to have coffee with jim. Not just to talk about wrestling, but just life in general. He strikes me as an exceedingly intelligent individual. And I think he's very interesting

The classic Cactus promos! ❤

A couple things to mention: 1) It's still interesting that the (admittedly deserved) criticism of Paul being a "poor businessman" and the 8 million dollar loss being a testament to that... but the 8 million was over the life of him running the promotion. There was a point where Dixie Carter lost that in a _single_ _fiscal_ _year_ and still operated years after while she was there. Tony Khan has probably pissed 8 million away per month in strictly operational costs since AEW started. 2) The idea of ECW being famous ONLY for blood and furniture falls into that same weird filter that the NFL has for safety protocol BS and overzealous pentalties but some of the most popular footage is people getting their clocks cleaned with giant hits. Imagine if that's ALL the NFL got sold as any time anyone ever mentioned it? If the league folded tomorrow, and all anyone was ever shown were massive collisions or events like the Theismann injury, eventually, people in the future would think America Football was far more barbaric and dangerous and was this lawless murdergame. This has been what happened with ECW: they perpetuated the strictly hardcore lawless image until that image is pretty much the only part of the legacy that remains intact. Any time ECW is mentioned, it's overlaid with footage of flaming tables, and the night Terry Funk asked for "a chair" and got buried by them from half the audience. Anything else gets willfully excised by everyone - be it fans, alumni, or any sort of documentarians - because it becomes more important to perpetuate the lore that events like Kimona's striptease was constant or that nearly every match was like a New Jack match when it actually wasn't. 3) Whenever anyone mentions WCW, up to and including the currently topical "Who Killed WCW?" stuff, they go into at least some detail about how the latter era Turner execs weren't happy with or straight up loated wrestling. They site, among many things, the suits hating the dipping ratings. I say that to note that no one ever really mentions the absolute giggling contempt TNN showed for ECW from jump, even in spite of ECW being THE HIGHEST RATED SHOW ON THE NETWORK during their initial transition phases of The Nashville Network>The National Network>Spike TV. They got screwed with so much with notes and such, they made an angle out of it (Don Callis was essentially "the network stooge"). The only time TNN aired adverts for ECW programming and/or events was during ECW itself. And they always wanted to use the show for a lead-in to whatever bullshit show they tried to manufacture as "their" homegrown hit, like "Rock N Bowl". To use a current situation, it's like AEW and Big Bang Theory, except ECW TV was Big Bang Theory. And even still, they wanted nothing to do with and had no help for - what needs to be mentioned again - the network's highest rated show. So, when WWE's relationship ended with USA and the situation landed them on the same network, suddenly, TNN suits were all about wrestling. They couldn't wait to crow about when and where WWE was happening and swept ECW under the rug.

How are you going to do an ECW Biography and not mention New Jack and the Mass Transit incident. Come on?

The Northeast brand of fans were indeed a special lot. No one loved Sid more than the Philly/NY/NJ/New England crowd

...people setting people on fire, people diving off balconies. And most dangerous, people willing to get on the ring with New Jack. And then getting in the ring after pissing him off.

“Old Man screams at ECW shaped cloud.”

I knew jim was gonna rip this he didnt like ecw but he also was right about how they didnt show eddie dean the steiners or how any old stars came through in the early beginnings

Always love Corny talking ECW. Its just interesting hearing his takes on the promotion since he knew Paul E and a lot of the guys.

Debt - acknowledge me Heyman - i dont acknowledge you

Heyman may have screwed Tommy Dreamer out of money, but Dreamer has milked many years out of not being very good. I've seen him at events and for a guy who wasn't that good, very obnoxious at events

I loved ECW, and JC often grinds my gears, but he’s spitting truth bombs here.

All these guys going on about the irony of what Paul did recently. The whole point is that as a promoter he was asking people to do stuff he wasn’t willing to do himself because he was scared he’d get hurt and it’s only now, decades afterwards when he’s an employee for someone else and his bad financial decisions have bit him in the ass that he’s willing to give that stuff a try. In other words, he was a bad boss who didn’t care about his wrestlers.

I wonder what Tammy Sitch is doing in prison ? What is her daily life like ?

I must disagree with something here. The whole idea of "TNN Couldn't Sell Advertisers Because Of The Content" Well,who told them to bring ECW onto their network? If they were stupid enough to sign a wrestling show sight unseen,no clue what it was? That isn't on Paul.

A&E is not looking to do hardcore in depth biographies. They want feel good stories, that showcase some tough or hard times. It is A&E. That is all you need to know. Always end on a high note....llllaaaaaa!!!!!

Remember Jim according to the law of the land corporations are people. So a biography of ECDub is entirely fitting.

I missed this biography on A&E, hopefully its on again soon. Sounds interesting

No offense jim, but stone cold is a fancier sandman. They are respectfully different but alot of similarities too. Lets not act like ECW wasnt wwf jr uncensored lol

ECW walked so AEW could crawl

Travis should have put a big bald spot on top of the head with stiches around it on the Kurt Cobain Frankenstein monster

You got the Cliff Notes, WWE watered down version of the history of ECW. When you don’t interview guys like Douglas, Raven , Sabu, Taz, Fonzie, and only the guys that are Vince guys or Triple H guys get screen time. One Hour is not enough to tell the story of how great ECW was and showing the final days. That episode Sucked!!!

Candido, balls, smothers, gangstas, just a few ppl from smw that r only remembered for ecw

ECW worked in the time frame that it was set in (mid 90s/early 00s). Teenage me thought it was awesome. The problem w/ people attempting to replicate it in modern times is that it just doesn't work. You'd literally have to turn back time to make it work again.

FrankenCobain! You're a genius Travis.

Oh my gawd - Jim is saying this a few days of recording before Paul goes through a table ... man is finishing his story. 16:47

My wife said", without story wrestling is just two guys fake fighting", she deals with my marking out but I thought that was appropriate to most of the issues with AEW and it did kinda start with ECW. WWE may have dumb stories but the DO have them. Idk? What do you all think?

Ecw could only exist in the 90's. There's no way it could've been earlier or later

I loved ECW at the time. Some holds up and some doesn’t. But even then, I thought the TNN show was awful. I bought every PPV and always loved stuff on those shows. But TNN was never coherent or put together well.

Do you think Jim is a annoyed that Smokey Mountain won't get a show like this?

I remember when ECW showed up at the Manhattan center, I thought it was real! I thought it was a shoot, I live in Washington, we didn't get much ECW other than a rare tape, I was so programmed to WWF that when these guys showed up I was like OMG

I WANNA BE LIKE SANDMAN

ECW gave us Raven, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Rhyno, Mankind, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Rob Van Dam just to name a few. If those people never came to ECW, never got a chance to try something new, were never taught by Paul Heyman how to properly cut a promo and properly play to the crowd they would never have gone on to be icons of the industry. It can not be disputed. No one cared about stunning Steve Austin until Paul heyman taught him how to properly cut a promo and put an open mic in his hand and said “just shit on WCW. I want you to” and got Vince’s attention. Even stone cold himself admits this fact.

a WWE wrestler defeated a WCW wrestler on ECW TV wont see things like that ever again from 95 to 99/2000 ECW was the best, id still rather watch that then any wrestling today

Cornette is a shape-shifter, like Q

Love jim. But. 40 year old cornette vs 16 year old me in philly. Well nuff said. Philly crowd agrees it was not a clown vs garbage man. We will allways love ECW

I wasn't a fan of the dangerous use of weapons, I was into the hardhitting wrestling, even done by the high flyers; the music, pretty women, relatively freer use of language and the crazy angles! I keep hoping some promoter will understand that for many ECW fans, it wasn't just about tables, ladders, chairs and toasters!

I can understand JC criticizing because of the misunderstanding of what ECW’s was and still to this day. ECW played a huge influence on the Attitude Era in the late 90’s. But, over the years its influence was just all over the place and didn’t feel special anymore. On the indies you see death matches and in WWE just an overload of gimmick ppvs with Extreme Rules, HIAC and TLC. Those names are good for one off shows but, annual names. That’s why it’s a positive thing that WWE has slowly moved away from the Entertainment and Reality Eras and started using more traditional PLE names and more traditional matches. ECW is something you can always be proud of for what it did for wrestling unlike WCW which became a joke and a laughing stock on the business as well as a disappointment.

I never thought I would see the day of Heyman getting wiped out on the Spanish announce table which in a way is karma of the ghost of ECW getting its ultimate revenge.

Just realized since BL said it, there was no mention of New Jack. Wow. Wonder how many other wrestlers got left out of the show. 💪💥🔥

ECW is patient zero for when wrestling completely went to shit

I was at one AEW show a few years ago. I saw 15 super kicks in one match. That was it for me on watching AEW.

Whenever they do a documentary about ECW they show clips of Doink and talk about how cartoony the WWF was at the time. But I think the wrestlemania x ladder match was a direct precursor to the rise of "hardcore" wrestling.